Reminder
by jae-vous
Summary: Fate has stepped in today, to remind her that life's precious, and oh so unpredictable.


**_Sharing my writing exercises and drabbles from Tumblr over here for you guys. Like I said, working my way back into writing._**

**_jae_**

* * *

She's running later than usual.

It's her own insistence that she is there each and every day to meet their daughter at the pre-school gates, though it means leaving the office in the midst of D.C traffic and spending thirty minutes commuting from the school, to their apartment, and back across town to work an additional two hours; one if she's lucky - but it's a sacrifice that's worth making. The team doesn't question it, and Gibbs gracefully accepted it long ago.

But there are days like today where the circumstances of their job remind her just how much more she and her partner struggle to have the life they want than other families with their nine to five jobs and weekends off and no dead bodies commanding them away from precious moments with a little girl they can't redeem later.

Their case had finally blown open early in the afternoon, and leaving wasn't an option up until the very last minute. Frustration had been raging inside her as she rushed out to the parking lot, and she'd flew through traffic at a speed reminiscent of her first few months in the States.

And so she's preoccupied with this job, and the challenge she and partner face, to juggle what they do and how very hard they work for the life they knew they wanted. She's frustrated with Gibbs for keeping her late and busy thinking about what they're having for dinner and_ was it Tony's turn for bath time tonight_ and _how long had it been since their daughter's check up,_ and it seem's fate has decided it's time to remind her that life if full of circumstances beyond her control, and steps in to remind her of just how much she has to be grateful for.

She double parks Tony's car two blocks away from the school, because traffic is at a stand still that's peculiar even at this hour. Shifting the gear to park so abruptly she knows he would have reprimanded her to no end for, Ziva climbs out of the vehicle hurriedly, making her way down the street and around the swarm of people crowding the city sidewalks.

She's cataloging what they have at home, mentally writing a list of the groceries, they will, in fact, have to stop for after leaving work tonight, and so she hasn't really registered the unusual crowd, the loud voices crying out around her, or the traffic that is growing the farther she walks.

Her phone vibrates against her hip, and she's still oblivious to the world unfolding before her until she tries to answer, and the sirens interrupted her thoughts.

She hears her partner's voice say her name, but she has to press her hands around her ears and the phone to hear him.

"Tony, I just got to her school, traffic is unbelievable," She glances around just as several emergency vehicles come flying down the access route of the street. She stops, watching as they speed toward the direction she's headed. Then she realizes Tony is rambling in her ear, and it's his tone that catches her attention and makes her heart begin hammering.

_"Ziva, it's her school - It's her school."_ He repeats it like a mantra, and his hysteria is escalating. _"She's still in there. They've got the building surrounded."_

Tony's voice has taken on an octave that makes him sound unrecognizable, and she doesn't remember when she started running until she's turning onto the final block and her eyes fall on a scene that makes her heart. stop. cold.

Barricades are resurrected all over, and flashing lights litter the entire area surrounding the familiar stone building.

Her hand that still holds the smart phone to ear is numb, and she scarcely registers her partner's pleas over the static.

_"We're on our way. Stay right there. **Stay. Right. There.** I'm coming."_ There are tears in his voice.

Her knuckles are white from the intensity of her grip.

She tightens her hold on the phone, hanging on like a life-line.

* * *

Fate has stepped in today, to remind her that life's precious, and oh so unpredictable.


End file.
